Clear Retro vs FocusRetro

Clear Retro is a free web tool for live Agile retrospectives, designed by developers for developers and remote engineering teams. WebSocket synchronization updates teammates’ boards without refreshes, while guest access lets participants join without logging in. Focus Mode blurs cards during writing to reduce groupthink and social bias. Teams can prioritize issues with numerical votes from 0 to 5, then use Gemini AI to categorize and semantically group cards. Templates include Start, Stop, Continue; Mad, Sad, Glad; 4Ls; Lean Coffee; and Sailboat. The tool supports action tracking and exports PDF and Excel reports with AI-generated summaries and sentiment analysis. Its Community Edition costs nothing and includes unlimited boards, members, and history, plus all current features. Clear Retro identifies Gemini AI and Google Cloud Platform (Firebase) for storage, says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and says retrospective data is not used to train Google’s public AI models.

FocusRetro is a web-based retrospective tool for agile, remote, and hybrid teams. Boards organize feedback, blind voting, timers, and action items; phase locks, topic grouping, and moderation controls help structure a session. Templates include Went Well / To Improve / Action Items, Mad Sad Glad, Start-Stop-Continue, 4Ls, and a blank board. Action items can have an owner, due date, and status, then return at the start of the next retrospective. FocusRetro lists Jira and Slack integrations. Guests can join a board through an invite link to contribute feedback, vote, and access action items without an account. The free Starter plan costs nothing and includes three personal boards per month, core templates, voting, reactions, phase timers, and action items. The Team plan costs $15 a month and includes one shared workspace, unlimited boards and members, and private or restricted boards with passwords. Business has custom annual billing, with no price listed. Browser traffic is encrypted with TLS; integration tokens are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. FocusRetro says health-check answers are stored as anonymous aggregates and that it does not yet hold SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certifications.